Connecticut western news., 1887-11-02
TOMATO CANNERIES.
Progress of the Tomato From
 Field to Consumer.
Qne of the Great Industries of
 New Jersey.

One of the Great Industries of
 New Jersey.
 What the peach orchards are to Della ware the tomato fields are so much to Salem and Cumberland counties, says letter from Salem, N. J., to the New York Times. The tomatoes are picked in the regular Delaware. peach baskets sn l sasa on wagons purposely ar rangs Tor the purpose. The farmer takes the load to tho can house and is met bya "wagon master" who assigns him a plafe in the procession and he puts bis Iagon in it. If he is prudent and ind dustrious farmer he unhitches his horses and rcturns to his farm with his team, fer he can, in all probability go homo, gather another load, and return to the canning house b,fore his first load is wanted at the "scalder." Z
 Long lines of farm wagons loaded with this fruit may be seen around each of the great establishments. The farmers in most cases have gone home and left their wagons unguardcd. They are perfectly safe. Tomatoes are so abundant that not even tho street gamin will molast them. Som ctimes "A hours pass between the time a wagonload i, delivered to the wagon master and its delivery to the scaldcr. Tho scalder is the primary machine in the canning factory, unless the scales be classed as part of the factory. The scales arc in the street but the register is inside of the office. The farmer, who, by the grace of the wagon master has the next turn at the scalder, is told to pull his wagon oa to tn, scales, and the wagon, basket and man are all weighed together. Then he is told to "pull up" to the scalder. This scalder is a large box tub, made square, into which there Is turned steam pipe by which the water may be kept hot. Inside of tho scalder and working on hinges there is a half round iron basket that will hold the tomatoes. This basket is so arranged that manwith rope running through a block can lower the tomatoes into scala ing water or lift them out at will. Usu- ally two baskets are put into the scalder at q time, and by tho time the farmer can walk the four or five steps backward to the wagon and return these two bas- kets offomatoes have been scalded and by a movement of tho rope sent into tubs, and it is said that they are washed at the same time that they are scaldel :; but, as the water in which tn ey are scalded is generally so muddy as to make it impossible to see tomato a hairs breadth under the surface, rather question the cleaning process.
 Some of the factories are more clcanly than others but there is not factory that has so far overcome the difficulty of washing. And so far as have seen, that is the feature of the packing that is not perfect, excepting that none of the factories wash their cans before using them. The women who ''skin" the to- matoes might come into the factory with unclean hands, but in five minutes work the hand of tho tidiest and most clcanly woman in the place would be no cleaner than those of the most untidy, so rapid is the action of the tomato acid in taking the dirt from the hands. After the tomatoes have been "skinncd" they are thrown into buckets, and whenever woman fills an ordinary water bucket she is given check which entities her to or cents. Many women here will ''skin 50 buckets per day or an hour
 When the baskets are filled a man throws them into the hopper of ma chine called "stuffer." These machines are usually operated by steam power, full of tomatoes into can, seldom fail ing to fill it. To prevent having light cans, each one as it is taken away from the "stuffer" is passed to a woman termed ''finishcr," and she sees that i, is properly filled. In several of the fac tories that I visited there was being successfully operated a machine by which by the use of unskilled labor the caps could be soldered to ten cans at ono operation, but most of the caps are sol dered by what is commonly known as chub irons, and one cap is finished at : time. The cans are then put into largo trays made of iron, and these trays, piled one upon another, are put into large tubs filled with hot water and
 scalded for upward of an hour, wher they are taken out and piled over the factory floor, and sometimes outdoors, where they may best be cooled. The next day they are carefully inspected, and those not properly ''processed' arc taken out and reprocessed.
 A few days after the cans have been corked they arc ready for labelling and packing into cases for shipping. Ir many of tho larger factories these opera
 tions are to be seen at one visit. There is one canning establishment here 1T
 Salem where preparations were made tc can about 1,soo,0 900 cans, or 15o, oo(
 dozen. That quantity of tomatoes vii sell this season for upward of $150, 900. 1ul